[Qgis-user] Migrating legacy QGIS instance

[Walt Ludwick]

I'm on MacOS -and not so very comfortable with command line scripting- so
it looks like i might have to go the drag&drop way to import these .shp
files. Will take some time, but at least that way i can be sure about what
i've put where, and in what form.

But i do wonder about the (a) "stick multiple shps into a single gpkg" OR
(b) "create one per feature" decision, since i'm not experienced enough to
have a clear preference about this.  Can you say anything about pros & cons
of going one way vs the other?


On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 11:45 AM Charles Dixon-Paver <charles at kartoza.com>
wrote:

> Easiest way for me is to use the GDAL ogr2ogr
> <https://gdal.org/programs/ogr2ogr.html> command using a bash script or
> cmd batch to traverse your directories (depending on how you installed QGIS
> this should be on your path). I don't know what environment you're running
> though.
>
> You can either stick multiple shps into a single gpkg or create one per
> feature as you prefer. ogr2ogr can also push shp files directly into
> PostGIS. When you want to consolidate or migrate data (between gpkgs or
> from gpkg to PostGIS) you can simply select the feature layers you want and
> use drag and drop from the QGIS 3 Browser panel to copy multiple features
> to a target location.
>
> Others might have different approaches though.
>
> Regards
>
> On Tue, 11 Aug 2020 at 12:24, Walt Ludwick <walt at valedalama.net> wrote:
>
>> I've inherited a legacy GIS, built up over some years in versions 2.x,
>> that i'm now responsible to maintain.  Being an almost complete n00b (did
>> take a short course in QGIS a good few years ago, but still..), i could
>> really use some advice about migration.
>>
>> i've created a new QGIS instance in version 3.14, into which i am trying
>> to bring all useful content from our old system: oodles of shapefiles,
>> essentially, plus all those other files (each .shp file appears to bring
>> with it a set of.shx, .dbf, .prj, qpj  files, plus a .cpg file for each
>> layer, it seems).  This is a significant dataset- 14gb, >1000 files -and
>> that is just base data, not counting Projects built on this data or Layouts
>> used for presenting these projects in various ways. Some of this is cruft
>> that i can happily do without, but still:  i've got a lot of porting-over
>> to do, without a clear idea of how best to do it.
>>
>> The one thing i'm clear about is: i want it all in a non-proprietary
>> database (i.e. no more mess of .shp and related files) that is above all
>> quick & easy to navigate & manage. It is a single-user system at this
>> point, but i do aim to open it up to colleagues (off-LAN, i.e. via
>> Internet) as soon as i've developed simple apps for them to use.  No idea
>> how long it'll take me to get there, so...
>>
>> Big question at this point is: What should be the new storage format for
>> all this data?  Having read a few related opinions on StackOverflow, i get
>> the sense that GeoPackage will probably make for easiest migration (per this
>> encouraging article
>> <https://medium.com/@GispoFinland/learn-spatial-sql-and-master-geopackage-with-qgis-3-16b1e17f0291>,
>> it's a simple matter of drag&drop -simple if you have just a few, i guess!
>> [1]), and can easily support my needs in the short term, but then i wonder:
>> How will i manage migration to PostGIS when i eventually put  this system
>> online with different users/ roles enabled?
>>
>> [1] Given that i need to pull in some hundreds of .shp files that are
>> stored in a tree of many folders & subfolders, i also wonder: is there a
>> simple way that i can ask QGIS to traverse a certain directory, pull in all
>> the .shp files -each as its own .gpkg layer, i suppose?
>>
>> Any advice about managing this migration would be much appreciated!
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